In common wiper blades for motor vehicles, the purpose of the support element is to assure as uniform as possible a distribution of the wiper blade pressure against the window, which pressure is exerted by a wiper arm connected to the wiper blade, over the entire wiping field wiped by the wiper blade. Through an appropriate curvature of the unloaded support element—i.e. when the wiper blade is not resting against the window—the ends of the wiper strip, which is placed completely against the window during the wiping operation of the wiper blade, are loaded toward the window by the support element, which is under tension in this state, even though the curvature radii of spherically curved vehicle windows change with each wiper blade position. The curvature of the wiper blade must therefore be somewhat sharper than the sharpest curvature measured within the wiping field on the window to be wiped. The support element consequently replaces the complex support bracket structure with two spring strips disposed in the wiper strip, as is the practice in conventional wiper blades (DE-OS 15 05 357).
In a known wiper blade (German Utility Model 29611722.6), the two spring strips are of one piece and are connected by means of crosspieces disposed at both of their ends. Since these crosspieces are disposed in the plane of the spring strips, the slot, which is disposed between the opposing longitudinal edges and is enclosed by the spring strips and the crosspieces, must open outward in its one end section so that is possible to property install the wiper strip in the slot. This installation opening, though, can produce disadvantageous changes in the spring properties of the support element with regard to the desired wiping results. In addition, manually inserting the wiper strip into the slot through this opening is cost-intensive.